Customer Pain Points: How To Find, Discern, And Solve Issues

June 16, 2023

By: Gareth Mankoo

Customer Pain Points: How To Find, Discern, And Solve Issues

Why do customers buy a product or subscribe to a service?

The exchange of money, time, energy, and attention to engage with your brand and products is always significant. Every individual who shows interest in a brand is looking for a solution to a problem or a pain point they want to resolve.

Now, the question arises whether this is your competitor’s customer, who you can bag by resolving their problem, or your customer, who you may lose because you could not resolve their difficulties.

We will explore customer pain points, what causes them, what cures them, and why they must matter to your brand.

What are customer pain points?

Source: Emcien
Source: Emcien

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Customer pain points are unmet customer needs or demands they have or have yet to sign up for. It could be affecting them, people or things that matter to them, or their business.

Pain points can occur if a customer has invested in a product or service to perform a certain function, but it needs to be simplified or more efficient in performing those functions. Customers also feel the pinch of poor customer support when they need it the most.

Having invested their resources and trust in the brand, they expect some resolution to their problems. If the service or product only worsens, the customer will begin weighing the value they have invested versus what they gain from the relationship with the brand.

Once a customer enters this stage or a relationship with any brand, it can go downhill from there, resulting in the eventual severance of the association.

3 ways to identify customer pain points successfully

Failing to check in on your customers and their issues isn’t advisable. There are ways in which you can identify your customer’s pain points precisely.

1. Engage with your customers

Source: Hotjar
Source: Hotjar

Knowing what your customers are experiencing without engaging with them is impossible. Reach out to them through physical or digital channels.

Survey forms and customer outreach are effective methods for collecting customer information. Because humans have a negative bias, customers with pain points will be more than willing to share their experiences.

Take this feedback, identify the source of the problem, solve it, and ensure that you update your customers about all of this. When they notice that you are making special efforts to ease their pain points, their loyalty to your brand will naturally improve.

2. Ask your marketing and support team

Source: Strunk Media Group
Source: Strunk Media Group

If you cannot access your customers directly, contact your internal resources, who are in constant touch with them. Your marketing and support teams are the first to hear direct customer feedback. Consider equipping these teams with a functional business phone system that will record their communication with customers. Additionally, a sound help desk ticketing system can help businesses keep track of consumer inquiries and increase customer satisfaction.

Create processes and workflows that let team members flag off different degrees of customer complaints so they can be addressed strategically.

Reward employees who champion the cause of alleviating customer problems through meaningful actions.

3. Analyze customer feedback

Source: Enkonix
Source: Enkonix

More than gathering customer feedback through direct outreach and support teams is required. The data needs to be analyzed, and patterns must be identified.

One-off customer complaints about specific pain points aren’t a problem. It is concerning when multiple instances of the same aspect cause complaints. It is advisable to analyze data and extract insights from customer feedback.

4 tips for addressing customer pain points and nurturing the relationship

Every human interaction begins with a dialogue, and addressing customer pain points is no different. It takes great effort to bag a customer and nurture that relationship. Watching this effort go to waste because customers develop pain points is disappointing.

Here are four effective ways to address your customer's pain points and retain their business.

1. Speak from the perspective of the customer

Source: Help Scout
Source: Help Scout

Never speak brand-first. Always go customer-first into a conversation. Have your best people approach them and understand their pain points.

Do not justify your position because it could come across as if you are protecting your brand interests and placing them above your customer’s needs. Ask your customers what kind of experience they would expect and what you could do to improve it.

2. Ensure customers that you are empowered to solve the problem

Source: ZenDesk
Source: ZenDesk

It takes courage to accept that it could be your fault. It takes even more courage to ensure your customers that you have the right tools and know-how to solve their problems.

Do not get into the technicalities of solving the pain point; instead, break down the problem to your customer in easy-to-understand steps so that they are fully aware of the effort you’re taking and your expertise in solving their problem.

It is important to establish this because the solution could be some time away, and if your customer is unsure of their problem getting solved, they could move away to another brand.

3. Frame your offering to reflect the prospect’s dilemma

Source: Commbox
Source: Commbox

If the pain point is not affecting your customer but is presenting itself as an opportunity to win another customer, then construct your brand marketing so that it leads with your problem-solving abilities.

If your message hits home, the chances of the prospects considering your brand are higher.

4. Make it clear how your solution can relieve this pain

Source: Ceralytics
Source: Ceralytics

Don’t beat around the bush. Let customers know what you can bring to the table. Any customer with pain points seeks resolution and does not have time to dwell on options.

Present your solution to them most directly and practically possible. For example, if you sell picture or artwork frames, and identify that your potential customers are having trouble with prices, offering wholesale frames that are affordable is a great way to attract those customers.

Why is it crucial to understand your customers’ pain points?

Each of us has been a customer of some brand or service. Because of the many alternatives available, the power of the customer to instantly switch over to another brand is higher than ever before.

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Here are four other reasons to better understand your customers’ pain points.

1. It increases the quality of your product

Source: Digital Mules
Source: Digital Mules

Customer feedback and research of the pain points of your competitor’s target audience will give you insights on improving your offering. This can go a long way in improving the quality of your product.

Whenever you address a weakness or fault of your product, you take it several paces closer to perfect. Look not at customer pain points as a discouraging aspect of branding but as an opportunity to improve how your product works.

2. It promotes research and development

Source: Faithworks Tech
Source: Faithworks Tech

In business and sales, brands regularly need to remember to invest in research and development. Once the product has rolled out onto the shelves, a sense of complacency creeps in.

Understanding customer pain points encourages businesses to head back to the workshop and can out the R&D needed to take the product to the next level. One can never predict what unique innovations can be inspired through systematic research and development.

3. It boosts your brand image

Source: eBusiness Weekly
Source: eBusiness Weekly

Brands that solve problems are more loved. Brands that acknowledge customer problems are more relatable and attractive to prospects. Improve the position of your brand image by walking the talk and addressing customer pain points swiftly and diligently.

4. It promotes customer loyalty

Source: Customer Thermometer
Source: Customer Thermometer

Customer who experiences first-hand care and an immediate resolution of their problems is less likely to part ways with the brand. Doing so forges a special bond between a brand and a customer, which can go a long way in any relationship.

Happy customer never leaves because they rest assured that the brand they love understands and knows their problems.

Frequently asked questions about solving customer pain points

What are some commonly asked questions about user pain points? Get your questions answered with these three FAQs.

1. What is an example of pain points in customer journey?

Customer pain points are classified into four categories: financial, process, productivity, and service-related. Pricing plans that are too expensive, features that are too difficult to use, and terrible customer service experiences are all examples of pain points.

2. How do you describe customer problems?

A strong customer pain point statement should describe your their current situation in depth. Take into account how they feel, the financial and emotional consequences of their current circumstances, and any other relevant data regarding their ideas or sentiments.

3. What are customer gain and pain points?

There are two types of customers in every business: those who are attracted by the promise of gains (items that will improve or enhance a feature of their lives), and those who arrive at the table with pains (issues or barriers that they need a product or service to remove).

Bottom line

Customer pain never points completely disappears, no matter how hard to try to resolve every complaint and enhance every feature. This must encourage you. Instead, it should present the opportunity to you to improve what your brand has to offer.

Eventually, you build a customer-centric and optimized brand to the best of your abilities.

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